Courtesy: Google
Former Indian skipper Kapil Dev is celebrating his 66th birthday on January 6. He is the man who led India to their first-ever World Cup triumph in 1983, and was India’s premium fast bowling all-rounder in the 1980s. With over 9000 runs and 650+ wickets in both Tests and ODIs combined, Kapill Dev was voted as India’s cricketer of the century ahead of the legendary players like Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar.
Kapil Dev made his debut for India in an ODI match against Pakistan in Quetta on October 01, 1978. At 23 years of age, Kapil was appointed as the captain of the Indian cricket team, and his first big assignment was during the 1983 Cricket World Cup in England. Coming in as an underdogs, India stunned everyone, and went on to defeat previous two-time champions West Indies in the final at Lord's.
Kapil Dev also led from the front in that tournament scoring 303 runs with the bat, and taking 12 wickets with the ball in eight matches. The all-rounder bid adieu to international cricket in 1994. Talking about his career, Kapil Dev scored 5248 runs and scalped 434 wickets in 131 Tests along with 3783 runs and 253 wickets in 225 ODI matches in his international career.
Kapil Dev's Career Records
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Best bowling figures by captain in Test innings: Kapil Dev has a record of registering the best figures by a captain in an innings of Test cricket. Leading India in a Test match against West Indies in Ahmedabad in November 1983, Kapil registered figures of 9/83 in the first innings.
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2nd Most Runs in an innings while batting at number six: Kapil Dev now comes second in the list of batters to score most runs in an ODI innings while batting at number six. In a match against Zimbabwe during the 1983 World Cup, Kapil came in to bat when India had lost four wickets for just nine runs. After that, the Indian skipper played an innings of a lifetime scoring 175*(136) runs as they won the match by 31 runs.
